4 PAPERS, ETC. 



sojourn. It included among its members both men and 

 women; and, of the duties just enumerated, the latter was 

 necessarlly as well as specially the office of the Sisters, as 

 was the former of the Brethren. The Knights, or officers 

 of the highest rank, were called in the first instance 

 Knights of S. John of Jerusalem; and afterwards, from 

 the place of their successive residence, Knights of Rhodes 

 and Knights of Malta. The Hospital was founded in the 

 Holy City about the year 1092, and was dedicated to S. 

 John the Baptist. Eight years afterwards the Order was 

 introduced into England, and the brethren's first house 

 was built for them at Clerkenwell in the y§ar 1100. They 

 soon acquired immense wealth, which was much increased 

 in the earlier part of the fourteenth Century by the cession 

 to them of the estates of the sui:)pressed Order of the 

 Knights Templars. 



The general history of the Hospitalars does not form 

 a portion of my subject, and is also, I presume, more or 

 less knovvn to the greater part of my readers. It is to the 

 peculiarities of their government that I desire to draw 

 attention. 



The most important of these consisted in the fact that 

 their Houses, which were erected upon the majority of 

 their estates, were not independent communities, but the 

 officers were in all cases simply Stewards of the Prior of 

 England, who in bis turn had to account to the head of 

 the Order, Each of these communities, generally consist- 

 ing of but few members, of whom the majority were usually 

 laymen, with one or more chaplains for the celebration of 

 Divine Offices, was under the government of a Commander 

 or Preceptor, aad was hence styled a Commandry or 

 Pi'eceptory. The brethren were allowed a maintenance 

 from the produce of the estates committed to their super- 



